Video: School Bus 52: A Farm On Wheels

… The brightly painted bus uses a system of pumps and filters to turn the used kitchen oil into biodiesel as fuel. The inside no longer has any of the iconic school bus seats but rather is equipped with workbenches filled by plant pots, a compost bin, and even a cage big enough for chickens.

The Farm on Wheels is used to teach children across Starkville about how farms and gardens work, as well as how little space is needed to yield a very reasonable crop. Daniel also wants to show the importance of a balanced ecosystem and the addition of chickens to the bus highlights the advantages they can bring to a garden.

Daniel’s goal, and that of Gaining Ground, is to encourage people to begin growing their own vegetables in their gardens or in communal areas, which are often more easily accessible in communities than it first appears.

“All these things could be taught in very simple ways and it would be easy to do that and it would eye-catching and sort of connecting the dots because they’re already associating a bus with education.”

Although the Mississippi Delta boasts some of the most fertile land in the country, if not the world, very little of the food grown in the area makes it to the population living there. The state also suffers from high levels of obesity and diabetes.